In a candid interview on Channels Television, former Minister of Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, pointed fingers at Nigerian governors, accusing them of destroying the local government administration in the country. Mamora criticized the imposition of caretaker chairmen by governors and their failure to conduct free and fair polls at the grassroots level.
Mamora, who was actively involved in the local government issues, traced the beginning of the problem to 1998 when elected local government chairmen, with a three-year tenure, sought an extension to align with the four-year tenure at the state and federal levels.
The former Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly in 2001 revealed that this move was challenged because it attempted to usurp the powers of state houses of assembly, as outlined in Section 7 of the Constitution, which places local governments under the state.
Despite legal challenges, the National Assembly passed a bill to extend the tenure of local government chairmen to four years. Mamora and his colleague-speakers took the matter to court, but the Supreme Court ruled that the National Assembly had no jurisdiction in determining the tenure.
Mamora further explained that then-President Olusegun Obasanjo persuaded state speakers to establish stop-gap measures, leading to the creation of caretaker committees. Originally intended as a temporary solution, the caretaker model has been widely abused by governors, contravening Section 7 of the constitution, which advocates for democratically elected chairmen.
The former senator for Lagos East Senatorial District lamented that elections in local governments are rare, and when they occur, opposition parties struggle to win against the governors’ favored candidates. This abuse of the caretaker system has also led to concerns about the alleged withholding of local government funds by some governors. Mamora’s revelations shed light on the challenges facing the local government administration in Nigeria and the need for reforms to restore democratic principles at the grassroots level.
